The social pillar: an analyst's view

The environmental pillar is about the planet and the governance pillar is about how a company is run. The social pillar is about people: the company's own workers, the workers in its supply chain, the communities around its plants and the customers who use its products.

Social issues are harder to measure than carbon. There is no single number like tonnes of CO2e. They often stay quiet for years and then surface as one event: a factory fire, a strike, a protest that shuts a plant, a data breach, or a product recall. For an analyst, the job is to spot the conditions that make such events more likely, before they happen.

Social strengths matter too. Low staff turnover, a strong safety record and good community relations lower costs and risks, and products that serve unmet needs, such as affordable credit or health care, can be a source of growth.

The four stakeholder groups

Social data in BRSR Core

Several BRSR Core attributes are social, which means they are independently checked for the largest companies:

• Employee well-being and safety: spending on well-being as a share of revenue, lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) and fatalities.
• Gender diversity: gross wages paid to women as a share of total wages, and complaints under the POSH Act.
• Inclusive development: inputs bought from MSMEs and small producers, and wages paid in smaller towns.
• Fairness with customers and suppliers: data breaches and days of accounts payable.

A real example: workforce data from one BRSR

Ambuja Cements' BRSR for FY 2025-26 (standalone, including the merged Sanghi and Penna businesses) reports:

• Women were 3.13% of its 3,867 permanent employees and 0.56% of its 889 permanent workers.
• The turnover rate of permanent employees was 25.53%.
• LTIFR was 0.08 for employees and 0.55 for workers, per million person-hours worked.
• Three workers died in work-related incidents (two in FY 2024-25).
• Spending on well-being was ₹56.77 crore, or 0.23% of total revenue.

Figures like these become useful when compared with peers and tracked over several years.

Features of the social pillar in India

• Contract and informal work: many people working at a site are hired through contractors. Their safety and pay may not show up in headline figures for "employees".
• New labour laws: the four labour codes took effect from 21 November 2025, changing the wage definition, gratuity, social security for gig workers and layoff rules.
• Data protection: the DPDP Rules notified in November 2025 make privacy a legal and financial issue for every company that holds personal data.
• Land and communities: projects that need land, forests or water often depend on local consent, and disputes can stop them for years.